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There have been missteps on the journey back to private hands with attempts last year to sell shares more widely not going ahead - the move stopped by the then Chancellor George Osborne last January because of the market conditions.

We should also pause to praise those who have controlled the major shareholding in the bank on behalf of the Government.

The team at UK Financial Investments, which includes some major Scottish accountants and bankers, have managed to achieve a profit of £894m on the original £20.3bn of taxpayers’ cash pumped in to rescue the bank.

Horta-Osorio has also done a good job in the six years since he took over the business that, as he said today, “was in a very fragile position.”

That said Lloyds was always going to be an easier fix as mainly a high street bank as opposed to RBS with its much more complex - some would say labyrinthine -business model.

Everyone – longsuffering taxpayers, those in business who rely on the banks, bank staff and general customers, - will hope that lessons have been learned and that such questionable practices and bad decisions by banks are never allowed to recur.

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Horta-Osorio was certainly making the right noises today. He praised all those involved in the turnaround effort. “Thanks to the hard work of everyone at Lloyds, we’ve turned the group around.”

And he went on to talk about the future: “But the job is not done. We’re going to continue to use our strong position to Help Britain Prosper.”

Good sentiments and Help Britain Prosper is a worthy sounding programme. Consumers and particularly businesses looking for funding for growth will hope that those sentiments are being matched and will continue to be matched by Bank of Scotland "walking the talk".